Kratom analysis for fun and profit

[sekio]

Hey guys, as part of a side project I am analysing various kratom strains as I find the time, I will posts summaries of the results here. The nitty gritty of the analysis is available in other places if you know where to look.

NSFW:

Vietnam Red
rhynchophylline - 5.70%
excelsinine - 1.07%
corynantheidine - 1.56%
speciogynine - 2.92%
mitragynine - 28.96%
paynantheine - 3.94%
speciociliatine - 4.43%
= 48.58% alkaloids.

I don't see any 7-OH-mitragynine.

 

[St3ve]

Oooh this is interesting! Are you doing some sort of mass spec on extracts? It'd be nice to get some alkaloid profiles of the different strains and how they compare to eachother. I'd be especially interesting in seeing how the green malay strain compares to the other ones, for some reason it's effects last MUCH longer than the other ones. My guess would be that there's some sort of CYP inhibiting alkaloid present in it that slows down the metabolism, but it could any number of other reasons really....

 

[Hiltoniano]

Thank you! I have been very interested in this subject for some time. What kind of analysis are you doing?

 

[sekio]

Gc/ms.

 

[hangyourhead]

Very interesting/informative post, Sekio! Are there more of these to come with various strains and/or alkaloidial extracts? I'll be stoked if there is.

I'd be all for getting some solid information on various strains and extracts of mitraygna speciosa. I'm wondering what shows up with the most 7-hydroxymitragynine

 

[endotropic]

Do you know anything about the stability of these alkaloids as you handle and process them? I'm just wondering if the lack of 7-OH is down to a stability issue or a real absence.

Also are you analyzing extracts of fresh leaves or dry or some pre-processed material? I'm curious how fresh leaf stacks up to all of the available processed products.

 

[sekio]

It's dry processed leaf. I have no idea about the stability of it, other than people have reported being able to GC/MS it successfully before. I doubt a room temperature extraction with solvent is too vigorous and a 24hour Soxhlet is not.

 

[cdin]

sekio, you're my hero, very interested

 

[Coolwhip]

Not much difference between Thai and Bali.

Rhynchophylline appears to be a low potency NMDA antagonist, any guesses on how much it affects the effects of "viet red"?

 

[Solipsis]

Awesome project sekio!

Coolwhip, maybe it would help if you'd approach it the other way round, and make a hypothesis about the particular effects of 'viet red' or other red-vein strains... then later when the material is analysed you can check if and how the data fits. Seems better than a total guessing game?

In other threads I've seen sekio explain or propose how some of the actives are unstable and that is why extracts tend to be especially vulnerable to degradation. I don't know if that applies to all of those mentioned in the OP here, and to which extent we know the action or significance of the different actives.... but it seems like it would be very helpful as adjunct to these GC MS tests.
I don't even know if for example mytragyne is basically the most important one and the other ones are mostly considered to modulate its effects. How does it compare to THC and psilocin being major ones, I'm a clearly a bit of a kratom noob (though I have tried it).

Hopefully there is enough consistency as far as the effects of different strains go, instead of the composition and potency mostly depending on cultivation / environmental factors... and freshness / exposure / degradation of the kratom products.
What do experienced kratom users think, who have preferably had (same 'strain' name) kratom from different suppliers?

 

[Hammilton]

Unfortunately I can't obtain UEI any longer. Will you please analyze this?

 

[Shaal]

So interesting! Do you use pre-column derivatization? What kind of column do you use?

 

[sekio]

2.5 grams of dried powdered leaf kratom is added to 25 mL 3:1 chloroform:methanol, shaken thoroughly, and left to sit for 24h at 10 - 20c with occasional agitation. Afterwards an aliquot is removed, filtered, injected in split mode 20:1 on a 6890 GC and 5971 MSD. Column is DB5ms, 30m x 250um x 0.25mm. Helium gas at constant flow, 1mL/min. Initial temp 100, ramp to 320, hold for 10 mins.

I won't be able to see some of the oxindoles or 7-OHM, unfortunately. Need a HPLC for that basically.

 

[endotropic]

2.5 grams of dried powdered leaf kratom is added to 25 mL 3:1 chloroform:methanol, shaken thoroughly, and left to sit for 24h at 10 - 20c with occasional agitation. Afterwards an aliquot is removed, filtered, injected in split mode 20:1 on a 6890 GC and 5971 MSD. Column is DB5ms, 30m x 250um x 0.25mm. Helium gas at constant flow, 1mL/min. Initial temp 100, ramp to 320, hold for 10 mins.

I won't be able to see some of the oxindoles or 7-OHM, unfortunately. Need a HPLC for that basically.

Do you have plans to test any concentrated extracts? If the vendor provides the strain the extract was made from that could be a really neat comparison. Also when do you publish? :D PLoS one would take this in a heartbeat.

 

[sekio]

I'll publish when I run out of strains to test. Still maybe 6 more to go.

I will test some "extracts" too. Preliminary analysis before I figured out the best solvent showed that one extract "Bali" contained nothing extractable at all, and the "thai" contained mitragynine & phytols. These are commerical extracts and not from the same thai/bali plant material I extracted.

 

[endotropic]

I'll publish when I run out of strains to test. Still maybe 6 more to go.

I will test some "extracts" too. Preliminary analysis before I figured out the best solvent showed that one extract "Bali" contained nothing extractable at all, and the "thai" contained mitragynine & phytols. These are commerical extracts and not from the same thai/bali plant material I extracted.

Fantastic! I'll keep my eye out for more updates.

I wonder if the "Bali" extract is intoxicating at all?

 

[sekio]

I've tried them both and I think they're both shit compared to leaf.

 

[hangyourhead]

Where's the damn 7-hydroxymitragynine! That's one of the most valuable alkaloids kratom has to offer. Among many others, of course. I like kratom, well good kratom that is.

*EDIT: forget my misinformation on 7-OH-mitraygnine

 

[amanitadine]

Unfortunately I can't obtain UEI any longer. Will you please analyze this?

Seconded. This is the big question (one of two I guess) out there! Bravo Sekio, keep up the good work....fascinating.

I would have though LC MS MS would have been necessary but analysis has never been my strong suit....at all

Shame that you can't do the oxindoles....I dont know if reference standards are available for HPLC...

Oh and PLEASE do bonafide FST....the SS stuff. I know there is no mitragynine in it from my feeble attempts at analysis ....

But yeah, SS UEI and FST are the big mysteries......please good sir, for the sake of science....these have been frustrating many for years as to what exactly they contain,,,,for what it is worth (bah) they certainly "feel" coryantheidine based, but nothing like Kratom proper.....this guy has had a monopoly for years and amassed a small fortune, tropical properties in which he is attempting to grow M. speciosa.....as well as lots of drama involving cops and jail....you could blow the lid off of his proprietary blend

But he also has done a lot valuable work on M. speciosa and it's alkaloids.....the Japanese folks at CHIBA(?) university have also done a wealth or work....just found a paper on fluorinated mitragynine derivatives...good stuff...

Cheers
Keep up the good work.

I tried pure rhynchophylline and it was nothing interesting....kind of like chelated magnesium more than anything else....

 

[sekio]

Where's the damn 7-hydroxymitragynine! That's one of the most valuable alkaloids kratom has to offer.

It probably doesn't make it past the GC inlet. I think it's pretty labile to decomposition.